Orienteering 2:58:39 [3] 5.9 mi (30:17 / mi) +1613ft 24:03 / mi
shoes: NB 410 v5
Ellicottville rogaine. Very tough. More comments later.
I don't have my map handy (I'm out of town), but thought I'd put down a couple of comments, from memory.
When we got the maps, we looked at both options, of going W-SW, or going E-NE. Jackie suggested to the 3 hour people that going E-NE might be easier. We still pondered both directions, and decided neither one looked all that inviting given the 3 hour time limit. Just not very many controls near the start, except for a few 10 pointers, and nothing looked particularly easy, either navigationally or physically (not many trail options, lots of climb, lots of some shade of green). So we just picked one -- we went E-NE.
I can't remember exactly what controls we did (I'll list them when I'm reunited with my map). #10 was first, and 28 and 30 were the furthest. Then we had a major challenge to get back without being overtime. We had to forego a few controls that weren't very far out of our way, due to the time limitation. We were (or at least I was) pretty certain at one point, with about an hour left, that there was no way we'd get in on time, and then a little after that, my only goal was to not get negative points.
As it was, we put on a gallant charge with 15 minutes or so left, helped by getting on a trail that was a long downhill, but not too steep to run safely, and with few rocks or roots or other tripping hazards. When we finally reached the road near the start-finish, we had 3 minutes left and I knew we wouldn't be overtime. But we were close ...
All in all, it wasn't very satisfying. We felt we worked real hard for 3 hours, and didn't make any major navigational mistakes (although certainly a few strategic mistakes). We wound up with only 6 controls and 140 points. It was enough to beat the only other team in our division, but it didn't feel like much of an accomplishment.